The Waddle Dee Knight Orchestra
by Chihuahua Bat
Summary: When everyone in Dreamland is off to a celebration, the Waddle Dee find time to clean their instruments and practice. But what will Meta Knight do when he finds them?


**I haven't been on in months and months... I'm really sorry! Forgive me! I'll look over and review any stories I had put on my alerts in my free time. For now, I'll introduce a story I had written months ago, but never had the chance to publish...**

**In this fanfic, I embellished to have the Waddle Dee play more than just trumpet and drums~**

**DISCLAIMER~~ I have no control or ownership of any type of Kirby enterprise.**

**(By the way, in this story, I've used Waddle Dee as both a plural and singular noun, like the noun fish. Hope that isn't too confusing.)**

_The Waddle Dee-Knight Orchestra_

On a star-shaped planet, in a galaxy far away, the world known as Dreamland exists. This place is often plagued by demon beasts, monsters the king orders to drive his own subjects insane, but with the help of Star Warriors nearby, they never succeed. Luckily, Nightmare, the one in charge of the demon beast enterprise, was defeated, leaving the land in peace. Nowadays, hardly anything happens, leaving the local warriors bored.

Dreamland is hardly the place for music to thrive—nobody seems capable of singing or playing instruments—but, oddly, the one group that actually knows how to make music are the silent foreigners, the Waddle Dee. None of them ever speak, since they lack mouths, but their leader, Waddle Doo, can. They had all arrived from a faraway unknown place, which they have never told the name of, and have no intention of telling anytime soon.

Almost every day, wherever King Dedede goes, his own entourage of Waddle Dee trumpeters and drummers follows, presumably to make his own appearance more grand. He usually takes for granted all the hard work and effort the Waddle Dee put into the upkeep of his large castle and himself, but since they have no voice, they can't complain.

It's always been a mystery how they can drum and play trumpet; especially the latter, since none of them have a mouth. Even more curious, that no one else has even bothered to wonder why this is. Well, now that Nightmare is gone, and there's nothing else to do…

Rare and highly appreciated, the Waddle Dee workers had been given a break from their chores. King Dedede had decided—miraculously—to give them all simultaneous free time today, since everyone in Dreamland was planning on celebrating "his majesty's" birthday outside at Cappy Town. Silently cheering, they filed out of the throne room quietly, and gathered up their shiny equipment; a flute here, a tuba there. It was all well hidden in cracks and crevices, or boxes and crates, that not even Meta Knight was aware of, and nothing anybody would view as of value other than themselves.

Back home, it had been their favorite pastime to make music. It was the one thing they had managed to bring with them; their home had been destroyed by demon beasts, and nothing was spared but their instruments. Cherishing them as their last possessions, the Waddle Dee managed to hide it all as they traveled for a place to live. After finding King Dedede a somewhat hospitable host yet paranoid ruler, they never bothered showing it to him, but decided to stay.

Now, pulling everything that they owned out into the thankfully large castle courtyard, they bustled about, polishing and shining everything. They were so caught up in their work that, when a certain masked Star Warrior happened to walk outside to see the commotion, they accidentally polished his mask along with the flutes. He grunted in annoyance.

"Stop shining my mask. I'm still wearing it." The Waddle Dee backed up, horrified that Meta Knight had been watching them. They thought everyone had gone already for the party the king was forcing everyone to attend, and Meta Knight was one of the few that they continually feared; he showed little to no emotion or empathy, and was difficult to predict. They scrambled backwards to avoid him, stepping out of his way.

No longer bothered, Meta Knight walked around the courtyard slowly, curious to see what they were doing. The little Waddle Dee army had more polished instruments than Dreamland had armor and weapons combined. Trumpets, flutes, clarinets, mellophones, saxophones, and drums were all laid out carefully on the grass, in assorted colors, shapes, and sizes. He also caught sight of shrunken tubas—probably easier for the small puffballs to carry. Some oddly shaped objects that he thought were clarinets were actually oboes, and even xylophones and marimbas for pit were present.

He was clearly impressed.

"Where did all this come from? This must cost a fortune," Meta Knight told them. "Not to mention a pain to care for and hide." As usual, they remained silent. Even if they could speak, though, they'd probably not talk to him. Still, they were relieved he liked it at all.

Realizing they weren't ever going to say anything, he continued walking around. He really wasn't supposed to be at the castle at the moment, but since he wasn't much for social outings, he had stayed. The king probably wouldn't be that angry if it was just him gone, anyway. And besides, he needed the quiet. Even if there hadn't been any battles or fights recently to have to rest from.

While the Waddle Dee actually feared Meta Knight for his silence, in contrast, he liked them because of their taciturnity. It felt nice to not have to talk so much—or be talked back at. The Cappy children usually did, or rather, all the Cappies. Complaining he was too "cold-hearted" or scary, and the like. It wasn't infuriating, just obnoxious. This was probably the same reason why he partially liked Kirby's company, too. Kirby could barely make coherent speech, let alone insults.

Keeping his silence, the Waddle Dee eventually relaxed, and returned to their work. Most of the instruments were clean now, and they began to start the process of tuning them. Meta Knight glanced around, startled. The Waddle Dee were able to blow air into wind instruments, but they had no mouths!

He took a step closer to one to see. It didn't have a mouth, as expected, but the clarinet it held still was pressed to its face. Meta Knight blinked, before narrowing his eyes, and tried to focus his sight on the creature. He stared so intently, that the timid Waddle Dee noticed and squeaked. "Sorry. I just want to know how it's possible…" Meta Knight said.

Realizing he was making the Waddle Dee uncomfortable, he backed away, and walked up to other ones. It was all the same; no mouths, but they could still play instruments. He sighed in confusion. _Watching them isn't helping me understand how they do it._

And no amount of personal thought or observation would solve it, so he gave up the subject reluctantly.

Or, he almost did. Just when he was going to walk away, the Waddle Dee handed him a trumpet. Startled, Meta Knight took it. On closer inspection, it was the instrument that allowed Waddle Dee to play it. When he put his hand on the mouthpiece, a random note was played, so he guessed it was heat sensitive. Still, he had no idea what valves to press, so he handed it back.

Further wandering around, he began to wonder; who conducted them? Was it Waddle Doo? Waddle Doo was actually nowhere in sight; possibly at the celebration. He was so deep in thought, eyes a green glow, that when he returned to reality, he saw all the Waddle Dee each holding their own instrument, facing him, as if about to play. He blinked blankly.

"What?"

"That was so boring. Why does Dedede think we want to go to his birthday party?"

"At least it was funny seeing how he reacted when he didn't get any presents," Bun snickered.

At that, the brother and sister both laughed. They didn't exercise caution, seeing how Dedede and Escargon were walking behind them, along with their parents, but they either didn't hear, ignored it, or were preoccupied.

Everyone was walking back to the castle, when Fumu noticed the lack of Waddle Dee.

"Dedede, where are your servants and workers? Shouldn't they have come?"

"No, I told them to have the day off."

"How unusually nice."

"Thank you."

Bun rolled his eyes. It wasn't exactly a compliment.

"Hey, where's Meta Knight?"

"Alright, I didn't tell _him_to take the day off," Dedede grumbled, slowing down in his walk.

"And so ends Dedede's nice change."

"Where is he? I need to yell at him," he continued, ignoring Bun's remark.

For some odd reason, everyone in the group still stuck together, and found themselves all walking towards the courtyard. Where the Waddle Dee happened to be assembled.

They began to hear noises, so they began to walk faster. And when they finally reached the courtyard, they all stopped in surprise.

All the Waddle Dee were organized by the instruments they were playing, and Meta Knight was conducting them, in an uncharacteristic fashion. When he noticed their entrance, he stopped, and stared back at them innocently.

"What?"


End file.
